some countries like greece faced multi-year recession and slowdown, unemployment at over 25%, youth unemployment over 50%. what we saw was the recession expanding. spain, italy, the uk, all found austerity taking its toll even more as unemployment continued to rise in some of those countries. even the large country, the economic powerhouse germany found its slelf slowing down. the root cause of it all was the inability of the european governments to come to policies to get growth started again. towards the middle and end of the year they did, but the tale was style there. very much austerity again and again. perhaps if there was only one change that took place as we moved into the fall and into the winter. it was the realization that most of these countries could take no more austerity. social welfare having been cut, health care cut, unemployment, growth virtually nonexistent. now the talk is not of more austerity, but how to get growth started again across the contine continent. suzanne. >> thank you, richard. >>> christmas, of course, is a time of giving, but there are many struggling familie